Jason Matthews's Espionage Expertise

One of the best perks of working at Interabang Books is finding new writers to enjoy. This past week, I stumbled into one of the most engaging spy novels I’ve ever read, written by an author with a wealth of personal espionage experience.

Jason Matthews spent 33 years operating as a diplomat and a clandestine agent of the CIA, running spies as a part of denied area operations throughout the world. His vast experience shows through his writing with a brilliance, bringing verisimilitude to his novels, RED SPARROW and PALACE OF TREASON. A mix of John le Carré and Ian Fleming, with a dash of David Ignatius, Jason Matthews is writer to watch. His books deal with the complicated geopolitical threats offered by a hostile world, showing how a CIA operative would direct agents in modern-day Moscow, Athens and even that swampy den of vipers, Washington, D.C.

You might be familiar with his first book, RED SPARROW, as he signed a seven figure deal to transform it into a blockbuster movie starring Jennifer Lawrence and Jeremy Irons, set to release later this spring. In the spirit of reading the book prior to the movie, I picked it up when it came into Interabang as a paperback and was just blown away by the depth of characters developed over the course of the two books.

Classical ballerina Dominika Egorova struggles after a career ending injury. Recruited by the Russian intelligence apparatus as a decoy, Dominika witnesses a brutal political murder at the behest of Vladimir Putin and is offered a choice: join the Russian security service as a Sparrow operative or die. After graduating from the sadistic Sparrow school, Dominika is directed to target CIA agent Nate Nash, who attempts to turn her as an operational asset, deep in the bowels of the Russian security apparatus.

Through the complex twists and turns of RED SPARROW and PALACE OF TREASON, Jason Matthews delivers an incredibly engaging spy story with aplomb, replete with the tradecraft that he spent his life utilizing to steal secrets from foreign powers. I am especially looking forward to the third and final novel in the Red Sparrow series, which comes out this February. Come by and grab your copies of Jason Matthew’s wonderful spy novels, RED SPARROW and PALACE OF TREASON!